Not-so-nice things have been happening in Minnesota lately for religious minorities. A recent Minnesota Public Radio News report highlighted a spate of disturbingly islamophobic speakers catering to the Religious Right’s rhetoric at events in largely rural areas of the state.

During this election season, many of us will be voting on more than just national, state and local candidates. We will also encounter state and local ballot questions that are of great importance to our communities.

Americans United gets numerous messages from our adoring fans in the Religious Right, many of which are of the snail mail variety. Some of our biggest admirers take it upon themselves to send us little cartoon pamphlets promising damnation if we don’t change our evil ways.

In addition to voting for the next leader of our country, Oklahomans will be casting their vote on a number of state ballot measures in November. As the president of AU’s Oklahoma Chapter, I hope we vote down State Question 790.

Every now and then, I find it useful to take a break from monitoring the familiar Religious Right groups and venture into the darker corners of the web where the lunatic fringe lurks. You see some interesting – and disturbing – things there.

For example, a group of far-right, fundamentalist Lutherans has been debating whether a woman can be president. Their answer is no. It is, you see, unbiblical.

The nation heard more of the same during the third and final presidential debate last night. Once again, the main topics of discussion were things like national security, jobs and the deficit.

The state of the economy and how we’ll fight ISIS are important, to be sure. But we heard a lot about these issues during the first two debates. At times, last night’s debate felt like a repeat of the first two.